Travis West | Interim Sports Editor
In the latest feud between the on going rivalry between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, Red Sox pitcher, Ryan Dempster looked like he intentionally hit Alex Rodriguez when he missed on the first two pitches, but found his target on the third.
On most occasions baseball fans would chalk this up to the long history between the two franchises, but not this time. For the second time, Rodriguez has been accused of taking Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED’s) and for the second time, lied about taking the drugs.
Although other players like Milwaukee Brewer Ryan Braun have lied about taking PED’s, Rodriguez was supposed to be the player that whipped away the tainted records of the steroid era in baseball.
However, that was before the 10-year 275 million deal he signed with the Yankees. Now, Rodriguez has to again deal with the questions about his off the field activities. Major League Baseball has brought down the hammer on Rodriguez with a possible suspension of the entire 2013-2014 season. The question is has the MLB done enough?
Many are comparing the severity of Rodriguez’s PED use to the gambling of Pete Rose. Rose was given a lifetime ban from the game of baseball after he was caught betting on baseball.
Even though Rodriguez has not been accused of betting on the game, he is gotten such a horrible reputation that he is almost the villain of MLB. It has been reported that the Yankee’s front office and Rodriguez are not on speaking terms and Dempster’s actions pretty much sum up how the rest of the league feel about the one time adored star.
Because it is Rodriguez second offense he should be disciplined even further. Most fans forgave Rodriguez after the first offense because he was able to produce and ultimately win a World Series.
But since then, Rodriguez’s poor outings has given New York fans another reason to get on his case.
With players being caught left and right, the MLB needs to make an example of a player to control the steroid problem in the MLB, or they need to allow all players to use them. The game of baseball needs to be cleaned up either way.
It has come to the point where we as fans always question our athletes. In many ways it has taken away the authenticity of sports.
Conversations about sports now revolve around the biggest names and biggest records followed by the injection of “but is he clean?”
Baseball is not the only sport at fault, but it is definitely the most publicized and scrutinized.
Whether Rodriguez is further punished or not, the game needs to be cleaned up for the sake of sports. Fans will always watch, but how many will they lose?
Baseball is slowly being taken over by the National Football League as America’s favorite sport and a lot even consider the NFL as America’s pastime over the MLB.
A season long suspension will make players think twice about taking PEDs, but a big contract will always cloud their judgment and integrity.